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We’ve had a death in the family

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For those of you visiting today for Green Thumb Sunday I might not be able to get my GTS post up today.

My husbands cousin passed away on Friday and we’ll be in and out of town over the next few days as we visit with mourning family members, go to the visitations and the funeral.

I know that there are several people still waiting to be added to the GTS list. I’m sorry that I haven’t managed to check your sites and get them added to the list in time for this weeks Green Thumb Sunday posts.

However, if you are new to GTS and are participating this week, please feel free to leave a comment on this post (or my GTS post if I get it up before we leave later today) and other members will know you are participating and hopefully visit to see what you’ve posted.






Everything in the garden is growing as it should!

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It’s a beautiful day here in Toronto and I’m hoping to go outside shortly and get some gardening done. I still have to spring clean at least half of the back garden and all the roses need a trim.

With all the snow cover we had over winter I don’t believe that I lost any plants, but I should have a final tally later today. Well if my tum stops hurting long enough for me to do some work that is. My Crohn’s is acting up bad this week.The other day I went outside and took some photos of the garden. We have five established Peonies and they’re all coming up:

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Soon we’ll have beautiful peony flowers.

I expect that shortly after that we might have our first hydrangea blooms. The hydrangea that I planted in our of our backyard garden beds last year appears to be thriving:

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One of my favorite roses – Theresa Bugnet – is thriving in her planter by the front door:

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I can get away with growing Theresa in a planter since she’s hardy to zone 2 (I’m a USDA zone 5b or Canadian zone 6b). Most years we do put some burlap or another form of protection around her, but we didn’t this past winter. I’m happy that her planter had lots of snow around it for the coldest months.

I love this roses red branches. They stay red all year round, although they are most vibrant in the spring and fall.

How are your plants doing this week?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information. GTS participants remember to check in at As the Garden Grows each week so that we’ll know you made a new post!

Hens and Chicks in the garden

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When we first moved into our house it had a garden, but not a great garden. It had a lot of weedy plants that spread throughout the garden and even into the grass. I can’t remember the name of this simple green leafed plant, but it was everywhere and it’s notoriously invasive.

Other than the weedy plant that took about four years to completely get rid of, there were mainly veggies, rhubarb, raspberries, strawberries, lilies and what appeared to be a fairly young apple tree and pear tree – planted in the middle of the yard!

I know I’ve got a few pictures of what the garden looked like before we started landscaping, but I think they’re on my other computer. Anyway … you can probably picture it. It was pathetic!

At the front of the house, beside our very narrow driveway there’s a very small garden bed. This was filled with hens and chicks. They were straggly as they were trying to grow in a very shady area.

When I was planting new plants in my newly created raised garden beds in the spring of 2002 I moved most of the hens and chicks to the back garden beds. As you can see from the photo above they are thriving in the sunny backyard. Click on the photo for a larger view if you’d like – the larger photo is quite nice.

The Hens and Chicks (Sempervivum), particularly in this especially sunny area have spread out and grown into the crevices of the interlocking stones. They look lovely … even better after I’ve picked out the dead leaves and mulch that get stuck in them over winter!

As for that very shady garden bed? Once I removed the hens and chicks I planted shade loving plants like Bleeding heart, lily of the valley, a fern, hosta and in a less shady area a Stella D’ora daylily, plus a few other plants.

Actually, I spent some time today adding new plants to that small flower bed and later today I’ll be planting more plants (that I purchased two weeks ago!) in the front boulevard. I’ll tell you what I planted in a new post once I’m finished the job. Hopefully I’ll have a few photos too.

In the meantime … if you want to see an older picture of what my back yard garden looked like in July of 2003 – one year after most of the plants had been added to the garden, here you go:

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The garden has matured quite a bit since that time and I’ve managed to add more plants! Oh and I’ve moved a few around too. So it looks similar … but different … better maybe.

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information. GTS participants remember to check in at As the Garden Grows each week so that we’ll know you made a new post!

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